Double Trouble: A Timebending adventure
by ReidsFanGirl18
Summary: It was never supposed to happen. There's a very good reason that no two Avatars' lives ever overlap. But when Amon finds out how to bring Aang into the future and how to use him to kill Korra and destroy the avatar's existance, two generations of Team Avatar must fight before their friends and the universe are destroyed for ever.
1. Chapter 1

Korra:

When I finally woke up, I had no idea where I was at first… my head was pounding and pretty much everywhere else on my body ached; except my side. That just stung like hell whenever I tried to move. I was lying in a bed underneath a white silk blanket, in a little room and there was an IV in my arm. At first I thought this meant I was in a hospital somewhere, but no. I found hospitals unnerving and nothing about this place was playing on my fight or flight response. That's when it registered that I was in the infirmary on Air Temple Island.

Sheesh… I'd had the craziest dream ever. Aang had been there… we were being held captive together in a metal prison… in the basement of some cabin in the mountains outside the city. But he'd been young, not the man I saw in my visions but the boy who'd ended the Great War. Amon had come… his chi blockers had rendered us both powerless and he'd beaten each of us to a pulp… but that couldn't have actually happened could it? Was that even possible? I'd grown up with stories of wartime and I'd heard of some pretty strange and amazing things happening. Things that you wouldn't think should be possible. I didn't know and I was still a little too out of it to care very much one way or the other. If Aang really had been there I hoped he was ok, but I didn't want to risk asking for fear of sounding like I'd finally lost it.

Amon, almost a week previously:

In my great plan for equality it dawned on me that taking the avatar's bending away wouldn't in fact help get rid of bending but ensure its survival. Once she was reborn the next incarnation would be an earthbender and the quest for equality would have been all for not.

In the interest of preserving my identity I decided to take a "hide in plain sight" approach. I needed to look through the city's vast archives, but I couldn't risk being recognized as the city's most wanted criminal. I removed my mask and took a look around the giant library housed inside city hall behind the council room. Though I despised the place even I had to admit that it was impressive…

I found what I need among thousands of books brought here years ago from the spirit library of ancient times. In that book I learned how to travel through time, and how to destroy the avatar permanently even if the current avatar couldn't be killed in the avatar state. All I had to do was bring Avatar Aang into this time and kill him. If I could do that, he and his current incarnation would both die and the avatar would cease to exist at all. This was the answer, and I was the solution.

I opened a portal to exactly seventy years ago to the day in Ba Sing Se, my childhood interest in history served me well here. I saw Avatar Aang, as a young boy once again, meditating on the balcony of a house in the Upper Ring of Ba Sing Se. At my will, he was transported here where my chi-blockers blocked his bending and electrocuted him, knocking him out… There was nothing in his reaction to this that told me he'd even noticed.

Once I had him, I paid off that power-hungry fool Tarrlok to gian access to Avatar Korra, whom he was already holding captive.

Aang in Ba Sing Se 6 months after war's end:

We'd come back to Ba Sing Se for a meeting between Zuko, the Earth King, and myself to discuss how to handle the problem posed by the Fire Nation colonies on Earth Kingdom territory. I was on the balcony at dawn, meditating just like I did every morning that I had the chance to. Helping rebuild a nation as vast as the Earth Kingdom and healing scars left by over one-hundred years of war had proved even more daunting than I'd anticipated. This is where I got to step back from everything I had in front of me... it always had been that but was even more Important now.

When I stopped meditating I wasn't in Ba Sing Se anymore. That much I knew. My arms and legs were bound with metal shackles and I was in a fast moving metal box… I was noticing a theme here, metal. Clearly whoever had somehow managed to bring me here without disturbing me knew exactly who they were dealing with. After we'd been moving for a while the box opened. I was grabbed out of the box by two strange people in masks who immediately chi-blocked me.

In the distance I could hear another man giving them orders, but I couldn't see who it was. They took me down to the basement of a small wooden cabin. As they brought me in I looked around, trying to figure out where I'd been taken, I saw that we were in the mountains somewhere. But that was all I could figure out before I couldn't see outside anymore.

In the basement was yet another metal box… one of the masked men pushed a button on the side of the box, causing it to expand to about twice its width without opening. Then they used a strange device that I'd never seen. It looked like the box had somehow been shot with lightning and I could hear what sounded like a girl screaming from inside. Then they opened the box and threw me in. They laughed at the girl already inside the box, which made me mad.

"You've got company." One of them told her before forcing me in the box too and sealing it shut.

I tried to bust out, but I wasn't a metal bender. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't get it to budge. I'd have to take my old friend Bumi's advice and wait for an opportunity. So I just sat down with my back against the wall of the box and waited.

Katara, Ba Sing Se seventy years ago:

I couldn't believe what I'd just seen. One minute and gone the next. He'd just disappeared out of thin air. My mouth fell open in shock… Sokka, Suki, Taph, and I looked everywhere for him for hours and came up empty. Finally at sunset, after having split up hours ago to cover more ground we finally met up. We didn't need to say anything. If any of us had found him he'd have been there with us.

"Where could Aang be?

"Katara we've searched the entire city and found no sign of him" Sokka reminded me. I wasn't in the mood to be reminded of what we already knew and I rolled my eyes at him. That's when things got weird.

A tall, old man with a long white beard, wearing dark red robes that were obviously Fire Nation appeared before us.

"Who the heck are you old man? We don't have time for this. We have a missing friend track down!" Toph yelled at him, having already taken a fighting stance.

"I know Toph, I'm actually here to help. I am Avatar Roku, the avatar before Aang." the man told us.

"You're…him?" Sokka asked.

"Yes."

"Do you know where Aang is?"

"We are in a very strange and very dangerous situation… Aang has been captured and taken into the future. He was taken into the lifetime of his successor by that avatar's enemies."

"How is that even possible?" Sokka asked.

"Why would someone do that anyway?" Suki added.

"They have already captured Avatar Korra, who will be Aang's future reincarnation. With the two of them in the mortal world at the same time it becomes much easier for them to destroy the avatar once and for all." Roku explained. "If they manage to kill Aang while he is in the future, taken from a point long before his own death, it will force an earlier reincarnation and it will kill Korra and anyone else who's existence is dependent upon Aang's future; but most importantly, as she dies Korra will be forced into the avatar state, and if she dies in the avatar state, the reincarnation cycle will be broken and the avatar's very existence will di with her."

We were all speechless for a little while, kind of in shock at what Roku had told us.

"Well then, how do we help them?" Sokka finally asked. He had that determined look on his face.

"I can get you to the future, and I can warn those closest to Korra who are already searching for her that she isn't alone. Find them and get both of them out of there, before it is too late." He said.

Then before we knew it we were on the sidewalk in a huge city we'd never seen.

Makko:

We had split up to cover more area, but I was starting to think Korra wasn't even still in the city at all. I was about to suggest we stop for the night, when I heard the payphone on the corner start to ring.

"Makko are you there?" I heard Tenzin ask.

"Yes, this is Makko." I said. "I know what you're going to ask but… we haven't found her yet…anything on your end?"

"maybe…but you won't like it…actually you might not even believe me."

"Whatever it is if it helps us find Korra I'm all ears." I told him.

"Well… I don't know that it helps us… but time may be shorter than we thought. Korra isn't alone, wherever she is there's another hostage."

"Who is it?"

"That's the part you might not believe…it's my father…"


	2. Chapter 2

Korra:

When I came to the box Tarrlok had me in was larger. It seemed to have expanded somehow, but now I wasn't alone inside either. There was a boy…probably twelve or thirteen years old…with…air bender tattoos. How was that even possible? As far as anyone knew Tenzin and the kids were the only airbenders alive…and Meelo wasn't that old. So who was this kid?

"Hi" he said.

"Hi" I replied.

"So…what's your name?" he asked.

"Korra…what's yours?"

"Aang."

Had I just heard him right? This…wasn't happening…

"Korra…can you tell me where we are?" He asked.

"I wish I knew, I wish I knew how to get us out of this box…but I don't."

"Oh, well have they ever opened the box for any reason other than throwing me in here?"

"They do but the always electrocute the box first…" I told him.

"Then we have to find a way to not get shocked…"

I looked around… there was nothing in here with us except each other and the clothes on our backs, not much to work with… Then I looked at my arms… the blue and white armbands made out of polar-leopard skin…now they might work…I slid them off.

"Hey Aang, I've got an idea…" I said, handing him one of the armbands. He looked at me questioningly. I pointed up toward the top of the box where it was open to the air but still had bars so we could exactly escape through it. "These armbands should block the electricity, we just have to use them to suspend ourselves from up there so we aren't touching the other walls of the box."

"Korra that's genius!" he said. I smiled.

Makko:

"What do you mean the other hostage is your father? Avatar Aang has been dead for almost 17 years…" I reminded him.

"Believe me, I was shocked too… but trust me..." I know Tenzin went on to say something else but that's when I kind of dropped the phone… I was too busy staring at the old man in antique Fire Nation robes standing behind my brother. I could still here Tenzin calling my name, hoping for a response no doubt. I picked it back up.

"Um…I'll… call you back…" I said and then hung up on him.

"Uh…quick question…who are you?" Bolin asked.

"I am Avatar Roku, I was the avatar nearly two-hundred years ago."

"You were the avatar before Aang weren't you?" I asked…I realize now that that was a stupid question.

"Yes." He answered, rolling his eyes. "I have a task for the both of you… the situation at hand is more perilous than you might think… the very existence of the avatar, along with many innocent lives is at stake. Avatar Aang has been transported here to the future and is being held along with Korra. If he is killed here, Korra will die with him and the Avatar will cease to exist…You must find Aang's friends and work together to save them both."

"We understand. We won't let any of you down." I told him… then instead of just disappearing he took off down the next street over. I don't know what it was, but something made us follow him… it just felt like the right move… and sure enough… there they were standing outside the café where Bolin took Korra once.

Katara:

We walked around the city for what seemed like forever, but we couldn't find any sign of Aang or the current avatar whoever that was, we didn't even know where we were. That's when two guys showed up…

"Hello… I'm Bolin… this is my big brother Makko" the shorter of the two said, nodding to his brother.

"Let me guess, you guys are looking for Aang right?" Makko asked?

"Um yeah..." Suki told them.

"But how did you two know that?" Toph asked.

"We were told by Avatar Roku, who came as a ghost thingy, that Aang had been brought here from the past and that he was with Korra, both of them are in serious troub;e and to help you guys get them out of trouble." Bolin explained.

"Works for me." Sokka said; Toph nodded in agreement.

"That was…easy." Makko commented.

"We're pretty used to weird…especially when anything related to the avatar is involved." Sokka told him.

"So… I don't suppose you guys have any leads?" Toph asked.

"We know who took Korra captive, he probably has Aang too… but we don't know where he's holding them. We can't get a straight answer out of him."

"That won't be a problem… just leave that to me."

"Um…Makko…do you have any ideas on how to explain this to Tenzin?" Bolin asked.

"Actually something tells me he won't be that surprised…"

"Who's Tenzin?" Sokka asked.

"Tenzin is actually Aang's son…and Korra's airbending master."

Tenzin:

This whole situation was a recipe for disaster. Korra had already been missing for twenty-four hours. Now to find out that my father had been taken out of the past and was there as well; how things could get any worse was beyond me.

When Makko finally called me back he told me to meet him at the prison where Tarrlok was being held on suspicion of kidnapping.

Aang:

A few hours after I was put in the box I was re-chi-blocked and yanked back out. The basement was totally closed off, there was no way to break out without my bending. This guy just completely started beating me up… and he still had his two friends coming at me with those lightning glove things. It wasn't exactly a fair fight.

I was about ready to pass out again when they brought me back to the box, they shocked it again then they switched me for Korra.

"I think you're friend here needs a break for a while… your turn." One of them said as he dragged her away.

There had to be a way out of this, there just had to be…. But what was it? I'd never felt so useless before.

It was a full hour before Korra came back…it looked like they'd been even harder on her than they were on me… Her eyes were glassy and squinted in pain… though I knew I probably wasn't much better, I felt strangely light-headed, and I had no idea why but my back felt like someone had ripped away the scarred skin from where Azula had shot me with lightning almost a year ago.

As I half-expected, they yanked me back out as they forced Korra back in… it was all a blur, I remember somehow dodging most of their attacks, but that's all I remember; that and searing pain in my shoulder, leg, and ribs… what on earth were they doing to me? I was so out of it that I couldn't even tell just how badly I was injured… not a good sign…when they finished with me this time I really did pass out.

I woke up just as Korra was forced back into the box a second time. I think I muttered "Hi" to her but I'm not sure… what I do know is that when she actually looked at me, her eyes went wide with fear.

"Aang… is all this blood yours?"

"Huh?"

"Oh no…" she said, then she took the armband she'd given me and tied it around the scar on my back.

"It's just a scar." I told her.

"That's not a scar anymore Aang, it's a big gaping wound and it's bleeding. If we don't put pressure on it…well… let's try not to think about that right now."

Tenzin:

You know it's high time you wish your current reality was just some crazy nightmare, when you see your elderly mother approaching in the form of a fifteen year-old girl… She studied me for a moment as we stood there in front of Tarrlok's prison cell while Toph immobilized him in solid metal and opened the cell door.

"Where are they Sleaze Ball? Where are you keeping them? Don't you dare lie because I'll be able to tell…"

"They? Who is this they?" Tarrlok asked smugly.

"Avatars Korra and Aang! Who else do you think we mean?" Makko and Sokka said at the same time.

"Don't make this even worse than it already is… just tell us where you have them." I said.

"Oh I know where they are, but I'm not the one holding them captive anymore…" he answered.

That was when my uncle (the sixteen year-old version) put his hands around Tarrlok's throat and started choking him.

"Tell me where our friends are…before I do something both of us would rather I didn't you ass hole!"

"They're… locked in a metal prison box… in the basement of my summer home… in the mountains outside the city…" Tarrlok answered hoarsely, Sokka let go…

We exited and locked the cell before Toph released him from the grips she'd made out of the steel floor of the prison.

"So does anyone know where exactly this place is?" Bolin asked.

"I do" I said… "We'd better get going…now…"

_Korra, Dad… I'm coming for you… we all are… _I thought to myself…


	3. Chapter 3

Korra:

"We don't want them dead yet… let's leave them alone… until tomorrow…then we'll end them…if we do much more now they might not last through the night and I want to see what happens…" I heard Amon say…

I knew it was after sunset, I could feel the full moon restoring a little bit of my strength… I had that and however many hours we had left till sunrise to get us out of here. Aang had passed out from blood loss, I was pretty darn close to it but I knew one of us had to stay conscious. Otherwise…we were both doomed. A little help from Aang's future self would sure have been nice right about then…

Then I realized that I'd heard Amon go up the stairs but I hadn't heard the doors latch shut… which meant that if I could somehow get us out of this box, we could escape…but how was I supposed to do that? I had my bending back but that wasn't going to be much help without water or earth…

I was an Earthbender, but I wasn't a metal bender… I'd moved right on to firebending before I actually got that far. I closed my eyes and pressed my hand against the wall of the box… then I reared it back and punched it. I could feel…little tiny bits of unperfected earth inside it… I had never been able to before, but I knew that this was exactly how metal bending was discovered. I concentrated on them, visualizing every tiny piece… By doing that I managed to punch through the box… it left my hand cut up and bloodied… but I got through… from there I made the hole big enough… then I climbed through and pulled Aang out after me.

Tenzin:

We flew into the mountains outside Republic City. It was miles of rough, uphill terrain and dense forest that I was glad we could fly over… I knew about where the cabin was…I just hoped we could find it flying overhead.

We were about ready to give up and start a ground search when I saw it, there was a truck parked outside. Katara, Sokka, and Makko took the inside of the house, while Bolin, Toph, Suki and I took the truck. All we found on our end was a bunch of weapons.

Sokka:

We went in the back door to avoid being spotted, as soon as we did though, a girl who looked like she was hurt, ran out the same way we'd come in… and she was carrying what I pretty quickly realized was Aang.

"That's them!" I said. "Follow them!"

But she'd turned the snow beneath her feet into ice and was using the patches of ice like skates. There was no way all three of us could keep up with her.

"Oh great… they're gone again…" Makko said in dismay.

It was right about then that we heard the girl trip over a tree root and crash…

We got the others, told them what happened, and took off after them.

Korra:

Hitting that tree almost knocked me out… well; at least it hit me in the stomach instead of the back. This way Aang got thrown against another tree across the path from mine instead of thrown halfway down the mountain. That was a good thing, wasn't it?

I got up onto my hands and knees…the snow underneath me was…turning red…and I started seeing double…

"Come on… you can black out now… not till were safe…" I told myself.

As I was fighting to stay conscious, I saw a bunch of shadowy figures coming toward us; but I couldn't tell who it was…

_Please be Tenzin, Bolin, and Makko, please don't be chi-blockers… _

Katara:

We finally found them on a plateau where two inclines of the mountain met. I don't know what scared me more, all the snow that had turned red with blood, or the fact that they were both unconscious.

"We have to get them out of here, they won't last much longer otherwise…" Sokka said.

We were just about to start bringing them uphill when we found ourselves surrounded by guys in masks… I immediately moved in front of Aang and used the snow around me for the octopus form. I noticed that Makko moved in front of Korra. The others each faced down one of the masks.

Sokka drew his sword (which he had remade from the original meteor with Piandao's help) and…impaled one of them… It was above the heart so it didn't kill the guy but it was plenty to make the others turn and run.

"It's finally over…" Bolin said. "This nightmare is finally over!"

We were all relieved to have found Aang and Korra, but I had my suspicions that this wasn't the end of our problems…

We got them safely to Tenzin's home, a place called Air Temple Island that Aang was apparently going to build someday and they were both taken to the infirmary there. I closed up all their wounds but most of the internal damage was too old and would probably have to heal on their own; and they had both lost a lot of blood…

I was a little surprised at just how much progress had been made. We were able to take blood from Tenzin and give it to Aang… he said something about knowing it would work because Aang would someday return the favor…or something like that… It flowed from Tenzin's arm into a glass jar through a tube, then that jar was disconnected from the tube and reconnected to a tube in Aang's arm… Being a healer I was intrigued by how the people here used this to get around the limitations of waterbender healing so I actually drew pictures of this as I watched it happen.

Aang:

When I came to, I had no idea where I was. I looked around the room I was in… but I was pretty sure I'd never been here before. My wrist was wrapped up in bandages and it and my forearm were bound in a wooden splint covered by fabric. There was a tube coming out of my arm a little higher up. I followed the tube with my eyes until I saw where it connected to a glass jar filled with red liquid hanging on a metal pole… What exactly was this thing? What was that liquid? How much trouble had I gotten myself into this time?

Finally I saw Katara sitting in the corner. Until she looked up and smiled at me I thought she was asleep.

"You're awake!" she said happily.

"Yeah but…where exactly are we…?" I asked.

I tried to sit up…bad idea… moving hurt…really bad…

"Take it easy Aang… you got hurt again…" she told me.

"I just had the craziest dream… I was taken off the balcony at our house in Ba Sing Se, and locked in a metal box in some guy's basement… there was a girl I'd never seen before there, she said her name was Korra…"

"Aang…that actually happened… and then some masked chi-blockers blocked your bending and hers and beat you both to a pulp… then Sokka, Toph, Suki, and I joined up with her friends and we rescued you two."

"So that wasn't a dream…where are we now though?"

"See that's the thing, it's not really a matter of where…it's a matter of when… we're in the future Aang… by several decades…" Katara told me.

"How many years?"

"I don't know…but you're future self is dead…and we're currently staying with your son who looks at least as old as my dad is now…" she said.

I'm pretty sure my jaw dropped open.

"Oh…and…apparently Korra is your next life…."

I didn't know what to think… How did this happen? How were we going to get home?

That's when Korra stumbled in…

"Korra?"

"Hey Aang… let me guess… you figured out that the last few insane days were in fact not a dream…" she said, I nodded.

"So…I'm your past life?"

"Yep…and I actually knew that when we were in the box, but we had more pressing things to worry about."

"Yeah we did, so are you ok?"

"As ok as I can be, all things considered… how about you?"

"Exhausted…sore…wondering what in the world happened…"

"That was me about an hour ago…"

"So… this is my…son's house?" I asked her.

"Yep… Tenzin, I came here to train airbending with him, since without you he's the only airbending master alive… he lives here with his family, for the time being so do my two friends and I…"

"But where is this place?" Katara asked.

"We're in what used to be one of the Fire Nation colonies, it's now, thanks to Aang and Fire Lord Zuko, neutral territory, and it doesn't belong to any of the four nations so now it's kind of like a country all on its own…"

"So…besides Tenzin, are there any other airbenders?" I asked.

"Um…yeah… Tenzin's three kids… your grandchildren…" she answered. "Their names are Jenora, Ekki, and Meelo…actually you'll probably meet them soon enough, they know who you are and they've all been trying to get in here all morning…"

Then we heard a loud knock at the door to the room.

"Speaking of which…" she said, forcing herself up… it was easy to tell just from watching her that it hurt. "Ekki… I swear if you don't leave us alone! How many times do we have to…?"

The door blew open before she could finish, and it wasn't a child behind it but a man, who looked like an older version of me with an overgrown beard.

"Oh…Hi Tenzin…what…brings you here?" she asked, obviously embarrassed to have yelled at him like that even though she'd mistaken him for someone else.

"Korra, that's kind of a silly question considering I live here…" He answered, then he turned to me. "Good morning…" he began, it was almost like he was even less sure about how to deal with this than I was, and didn't know which words to use…then I saw Korra mouth to him the words "he knows". "Dad… are you…alright…?

"I will be…" I told him.


	4. Chapter 4

Tenzin:

To say that facing my father as a young boy when it's supposed to be, and once was, the other way around was awkward… was definitely an understatement…To have him aware of the situation… well at least we shared the awkwardness…

"I just um… breakfast is ready…" I told them.

"Assuming Sokka didn't already polish it off." Korra added. Dad laughed a little at that.

He tried…and failed… to get up, but luckily Jinora was way ahead of us all.

"Dad…maybe that's a bad idea…" I told him.

That's when Jinora showed up with two plates of food, she gave one to Mom and one to Dad.

"Dad this is my daughter, Jinora." I told him.

"Hi Jinora" he said.

"Hi Grandpa… well there's your breakfast, and now I'm gonna go train… Korra are you joining us?"

"Not today Jinora, I can barely move as is… but is there any food left?"

"Surprisingly yes… I can go get you some…" she offered.

"Not necessary, I'll get it…" she said, struggling to stand. "See you guys later…" she said before limping off to the kitchen.

"Bye"

I followed Korra to make absolutely sure she didn't injure herself any further, when I came back the plates of food were picked clean and Dad was asleep once more.

"Thank you, for everything." The young version of my mother told me.

"Don't mention it…we all did exactly what we had to do. I'm just glad we found them in time…" I told her.

"So am I," she said. "So…you're really Aang's son…?" she asked.

I nodded. "and yours…"

She looked quickly from Dad to me but smiled and nodded.

"Do you…rally think Aang will be ok?" she asked.

"Yes, his wounds will heal… he'll get his energy back… it'll just take some time."

"Yeah, but that's not our only problem… we still need to find a way back to our own time…"

"Oh you will…because otherwise I probably wouldn't exist yet even now…"

She considered that for a moment… "I guess you're right."

Katara:

Tenzin turned and left the room. It really was hard to accept all the craziness of the past few days. Once we got them back here, to safety, it had been a matter of stabilizing them, which had not been easy.

Tenzin had welcomed us all, sheltered us… but at the same time it seemed almost like there was a distance between him and the rest of us. Only Korra, Mako, and Bolin managed to bridge the gap but that didn't mean it disappeared either.

But could I really blame him? How would I react if down the road when Aang and I were married and Tenzin and any siblings he had were children, if a young version of my mother showed up at our door needing our help? I was positive now that the world had turned on its head.

In the middle of all this, Sokka was looking for a way to get us home to our own time. Somehow I thought we'd get there, the same way we came here… but of couse Sokka wasn't listening. Suki liked hanging out with Ikki and Jinora, teaching them how the fans used by Kyoshi warriors could be used to amplify their airbending. Toph was trying to make a metal bender out of Bolin…

I watched Aang sleep and couldn't help but still worry… I'd been watching him since we found him. When he was up to hearing it he was going to get a lecture about scaring me like this, but now wasn't the time for that.

There was also a part of me that really wanted to punish those chi-blocking thugs. Just looking at Aang now, weak, covered in injuries…it made me want to crush every single one of them.

Aang, 4 days later:

Once I had the energy back to actually get up and it didn't hurt so much to move, I decided to talk with Tenzin. I found him meditating on the edge of the training field. I just sat there next to him and waited. Finally his eyes opened.

"Hello"

"Hi Tenzin"

Tenzin:

"What's on your mind? I know there's something…" I asked.

"Were you, as freaked out as I was when…when I got here?"

"Freaked out…slightly…" I answered.

"Is that why you've been kind of distant? I mean we've all tried to talk to you but it always seemed like you were trying to avoid it…" He asked.

To be honest…I was ashamed… seventeen years ago… when his life was ending… I'd been here instead of home…I belonged with my family. When I took my place on the council my parents and my sister moved back to the Southern Watertribe, where Mother and Uncle had grown up. I'd let them all down…

I knew of course that Mom, Dad, and Uncle knew nothing of this in their younger forms; actually I wasn't even going to exist in their present day for another eighteen years…

"Have you figured out how to get back to your own time?" I asked, desperate to change the subject.

"Somehow I think it'll just happen when it's supposed to happen…" he said.

I wish I'd opened up…but I just couldn't… and I didn't get the chance, because that's when the airships started arriving…


End file.
